Browsing by Author "Manni, Julia"

We live in an increasingly diverse society. Various neurological developmental disorders have become more and more common as awareness and general discussion around them has increased. One of the most important tasks of basic education is to support the student's growth in humanity and become a membership of society. Teaching and education must promote, for example, respect for other people, human rights and equality. It is also important to support the student's growth into a balanced person with a healthy self-esteem. Literary education is the right way to deal with these skills of growing as a person. Reading fiction allows you to understand both yourself and the world around you better. The meaning of identification is also crucial because every child should have the opportunity to read relatable works which they can use to mirror themselves. In the current literature for young adults, all types of autism are already covered quite extensively, but the autism spectrum still appears as a relatively rare theme. The purpose of this thesis was to study the spectrum of autism in two books for young people from the 21st centu-ry. The study was carried out as a qualitative study. The research method was data-based content analysis, which was used to analyze two books for young adults dealing with autism. The research was carried out more precisely as a theory-driven SI content analysis. The theoretical basis was Murray's (2008) publication on fictional autistic people. In the young adult books I selected, the portrayal of the autism spectrum was in line with Murray`s (2008) defined archetypes of fictional autistic characters. “The Curios Incident of the dog in the night-time” (Yöllisen koiran merkillinen tapaus, 2003) exhibited the savant archetype as well as a stereotypical description of autism. “The Shadow Garden” (Varjopuutarha, 2014) displayed a very subtle idiot-archetype. Both books also featured the core characteristics outlined by the Autism Society (Autismiliitto, 2023). However, despite the precence of Murray`s (2008) archetypes in both works, they offered a deeper portrayal than merely relying on stereotypes.